A teacher's view from the frontline

Tuesday 15 December 2020

A teacher has shared what life is really like for those currently on the education frontline, describing last week as the "worst, and most demoralising" in their entire career.

In this piece, the secondary school educator, who wished to remain anonymous, examines everything from the impact of contract tracing on children's mental health to why they feel figures in authority have continuously failed to understand or engage with the struggles teaching staff are facing...

"Last week was one of the worst, and most demoralising since entering the teaching profession in the early 90s. Teaching is in my family, and in my blood – we have had teachers in the family since back in the 19^th Century in the heart of the South Wales collieries, and our family teaching tradition and calling has always been a source of great pride. 

Last week was honestly the first week in which I truly realised the contempt in which my colleagues and I are held by some members of the public and, unfortunately, the political establishment. I didn’t listen to the arguments made by those who voted contre in the States, but I do know that none of them have actually listened to the issues that our headteachers have raised, or that we ourselves have tried to explain. 

Pictured: States Members voted against closing schools.

Suffice it to say that at least one of the ‘establishment’ who voted against has actually removed his daughter from her school this week, which beggars belief, and at no point did any of the Ministers, including Tracey Vallois, Jeremy Maçon, or Children's Commissioner Deborah MacMillan, who are supposed to represent our young people, actually bother to come and see what schools are facing ahead of their decisions or the voicing of their opinions. .

We have battled with the issues of physical distancing in an environment that does not suit it, during practical lessons where it is near impossible, and in corridors and public spaces where there is little enough space anyway. We have endeavoured to make learning as normal as possible while being hugely restricted with what we are allowed to do, all the while making sure that extra-curricular activities are offered and the children in our care do not miss out. 

However, last week was the last straw for me.

I watched helplessly as two students who had been identified as direct contacts broke down in tears, afraid of being isolated for days in one room and even more anxious about the possibility that they had unsuspectingly passed on the virus to vulnerable relatives. I couldn’t even comfort them as I normally would, and I know they are not the only young people afraid and nervous. Their mental health is hugely important and extremely fragile. Teenagers are necessarily focused on themselves as they navigate the vagaries of adult life and relationships, and every teacher knows that the reality of a situation doesn’t sink in until it directly affects them, so seeing that hit home last week was really painful and upsetting for teachers and families.

Pictured: The contact tracing process has been extremely upsetting for some children and young people.

Furthermore, having lost many of our students and staff to self-isolation, we were left with one teacher in the English department, one in Science and many other departments decimated and desperately trying to set cover work for classes. In what turned out to be a massive example of the ‘Dunkirk’ spirit, we obviously took classes for absent teachers, while at the same time ensuring that work was set online for self-isolating and positive students working from home. It was exhausting and difficult but our students were, as always, fabulous. They are scared, we had many discussions about what was safe and what the new regulations were (they haven’t a clue) and they have many questions. All of them are scared of having to isolate over Christmas and wondering why they are still in school taking the risk. I question why our States politicians, most of whom have not even bothered to speak to a teenager about their experiences and feelings about covid-19, felt they could pronounce upon what was best for their mental health last week? 

The fact is that we would never have closed in any case.

We would always have stayed open, as we have throughout this pandemic, protecting our most vulnerable students by bringing them into school, and we would have also ensured that essential workers’ children could come into school as well. I simply feel that our politicians could not (as has been made painfully clear during this crisis) make a decision unless the UK had taken the precedent first. It is ironic that Wales decided to close schools from the 14^th on the very day our Assembly insisted they should stay open, afraid of taking an independent decision. Isn’t it a shame that at no point did they listen to the experts, the headteachers of our schools in the way they keep insisting they are listening to those in STAC? Now we learn that schools in London are closing with much lower rates of the virus than we have here.

Pictured: Why didn't politicians and authority figures engage with school staff?

We are coping and we will continue to cope but at the cost of a seismic erosion of trust and respect for those who are supposed to have our backs. We are in a situation where we have close contact with hundreds of others in an environment that is essentially impossible to keep safe. We accept that students need an education, and we do not shirk our responsibilities to those young people. However, I think it is important that Jeremy Maçon et al understand, since they did not bother to find out in advance, that we do use technology to deliver that education when it is otherwise impossible.

Every Jersey Premium and underprivileged student in our school has been given access to a laptop to work from home, and many teachers have been delivering live lessons to their classes while self-isolating. The rest of us have ensured that our students get a rich and bespoke set of resources, including filming ourselves explaining and demonstrating, for every lesson they are missing while they are at home.

I spent eight hours on Sunday planning first the online lessons for the week, and then the real-life lessons – since they cannot do the same work. This term has been exhausting for all involved.

Pictured: Underprivileged students have been given access to laptops, and teachers are going above and beyond to adapt their teaching.

On another matter, Jersey NASUWT representative Marina Mauger did us no favours with her pronouncements last week either.

Saying that teachers are ‘terrified’ was frankly ridiculous: people with relatives in ICU are terrified; those who have elderly relatives in care homes are terrified. Yes, we don’t feel safe despite the best efforts of our school leadership teams, but we are not terrified. This kind of hyperbole did nothing to gain us support.

Our concern is obviously with our own safety and that of our hard-working support staff, many of whom have to get much closer than the recommended 2m distance, but primarily it is with those frightened children who dread getting a phone call telling them to stay at home and isolate away from their friends and family for Christmas who are our primary concern. How is that looking after their mental health and wellbeing? I am not spending time with my elderly relatives this Christmas because I don’t have enough time to be sure I am not carrying the virus, and I know teachers from the UK who are alone and stuck here on Jersey – they are thinking of leaving the island as soon as possible.  

Pictured: The current circumstances have led UK-born teachers to consider leaving the island as soon as possible.

So, overall, last week was a low point for me – I have never felt more misunderstood and misrepresented.

I love my job and my students and work extremely long hours to ensure they get the best possible experience. It is a shame we don’t get any recognition of this fact, and that our care for our students is not reflected by the politicians and officials supposed to represent their best interests when they voted to keep schools fully open and risk the welfare and health of all those who work and study within them."